Toyota's 2007 Camry ready for submission

Toyota's 2007 Camry ready for submission

Manufacturer to deliver latest design to NASCAR on Monday

By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
June 17, 2006
01:02 PM EDT (17:02 GMT)

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- The 2007 Toyota Camry that will be used in 20 of the 36 Nextel Cup Series races next season will be submitted to NASCAR on Monday morning, Lee White, TRD (Toyota Racing Development) USA's senior vice president and general manager, said Saturday.

White was at Michigan International Speedway in conjunction with Toyota's Craftsman Truck Series program and said the 2007 Camry, complete with the latest generation nose, would be delivered to the NASCAR research and development center in Concord, N.C.

NASCAR will take the car to the Lockheed wind tunnel in Marietta, Ga., for testing on Monday evening, he said.

The car, which was constructed at TRD's engineering facility in High Point, N.C., by the group led by engineer Todd Holbert, is scheduled to test for NASCAR on Tuesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, driven by Toyota Truck Series driver Johnny Benson.

"Johnny's got Cup experience, he knows the ropes and he's well-respected," White said of Benson, a Bill Davis Racing driver. "NASCAR expects us to turn top-20 times over an extended run.

"After the test, they're going to take the engine back and dyno test it to make sure it's within the horsepower parameters they're looking for."

White said the engine configuration is somewhere between the current Truck Series engine and the engine that Toyota plans to submit by the Sept. 1 deadline, for use in 2007.

"It's got the bigger carburetor and intake manifold on it to bring it up to the horsepower rating we think we'll need to have," White said. "It's one of two engine configurations we're working on as we move toward [our 2007 submission].

"The other is what we call the 'hybrid engine,' which has some additional metal in it to account for modifications NASCAR might want us to make as we go forward."

White confirmed that TRD has been working closely with NASCAR through every step of the approval process of its cars and engines, and anticipated the approval of Camry's "car of today" would come soon.

"Our teams have to build about 100 of these cars and we don't have an awful lot of time to do it in," White said, "so we certainly hope the approval will come quickly."

White said the manufacturer also is redoubling its efforts on the Car of Tomorrow, which will be used at all short tracks and road courses next season -- a total of 16 races -- and reiterated TRD president and CEO Jim Aust's prediction that Toyota's car would be at Michigan in August for the next scheduled COT test.

"It's important to NASCAR that all the manufacturers get behind this program and step up and participate," White said. "They are close enough on the rules package, we believe, that we are really ready to complete the chassis we have under construction already.

"We hope to have at least two of them at the test in August, if not more than that."

White also said he was pleasantly surprised to find, at least to this point, that the cooperation among the Toyota Cup teams has approximated that of the Craftsman Truck programs.